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Why would a switch in software like that that void the Warranty?
If you buy a PC, you can install any OS you like. The warranty that covers your PC is covering the hardware. If you buy a PC, have no clue what you are doing and end up trashing your windows installation, there is nothing your PC dealer's warranty will ever do for you. At least not for free. If the software is broken you reinstall it or get it serviced somewhere. If the hardware breaks down, you'll be heading up to your dealer for a warranty replacement.
Why would a phone be that much different? I even find it ashaming and harsh to realize that most people really buy that crap of "warranty is only void if you do not touch the software", like there was any warranty on the software part at all. Imagine a PC dealership trying to enforce such harsh software usability limitations like "never ever install any other software than the one you got it with, or forget the warranty". Would that actually be possible selling stuff like that? Not here in Europe at least. Imagine a car dealership that denies you your warranty on the engine after a few weeks just because you changed the seat covers. Its nothing different.
This entire "Other software voids your warranty" FUD is sparked by the providers and manufacturers that very much like to keep you trapped with them and their software, and sometimes even hold you, your device or your data hostage against yourself, pretty much neglecting the fact that you actually bought the device you are acting with, and still not wanting to give you any space to decide what you actually want to do with it. And the even worst part is, people accept it just like that.
Today's Smartphones are more like small PCs than like the old brick phones that couldnt do much. Most of these newer handsets are technically able to run many different operating systems. One can customize the systems as well, far beyond the possibilities the vendor envisioned. It sometimes feels like your PC Vendor tries telling you that you cant put any background image on your windows desktop which you did not buy from him. If you however use your own images, or god beware, remove the logo of said Vendor from the starting screen of the OS that that would be a change that possibly damaged your hardware which in turn would be void then..
Think about it.

Nice try though, definately something that doesnt come to mind at first.
But didnt he get caught just because he applied for that promotion himself? He could have figured that there could be a background scan somewhere, and that it might raise an eyebrow or two not only that his wife is on the list, but that she had been put there by him..

Hugh Pickens writes (1984118) writes "Lottery Post has an interesting story about Mohan Srivastava, an MIT educated statistician who became intrigued by a particular type of scratch-off lottery ticket called an extended-play game — sometimes referred to as a baited hook — that has a tic-tac-toe grid of visible numbers that looks like a miniature spreadsheet. Srivastava discovered a defect in the game: The visible numbers turned out to reveal essential information about the digits hidden under the latex coating. Nothing needed to be scratched off — the ticket could be cracked if you figured out the secret code. Srivastava's fundamental insight was that the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket was just a facade, a mathematical lie because the software that generates the tickets has to precisely control the number of winners while still appearing random. "It wasn't that hard," says Srivastava. "I do the same kind of math all day long.""Link to Original Source

An anonymous reader writes "A woman in her 60s was recently apprehended by Israeli airport security when she tried to smuggle 44 iPhone 4s into Israel by hiding them in her stockings under traditional Georgian garb."Link to Original Source

Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher, Tor developer, and volunteer with Wikileaks, reported today on his Twitter feed that he was detained, searched, and questioned by the US Customs and Border Patrol agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 10, upon re-entering the US after a vacation in Iceland.

"The country's Cyber Terror Response Center broke the encryption on hard drives"
Wait, what? Either they didnt put a too big effort into encrypting, or they got some means of unencrypting which isnt very well known..

Stoobalou (1774024) writes "A group of ex-intelligence officers from the CIA, FBI and the British Government has written an open letter of support for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Fronted by Daniel Ellsberg — the former US military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, exposing the truth about the Vietnam War — the statement says: "WikiLeaks has teased the genie of transparency out of a very opaque bottle, and powerful forces in America, who thrive on secrecy, are trying desperately to stuff the genie back in.""Link to Original Source

cold fjord (826450) writes "Wired Science has a story on a new theory that tries to explain dark matter, and the balance of regular matter with antimatter. This theory may even be testable.

A new hypothetical particle could solve two cosmic mysteries at once: what dark matter is made of, and why there's enough matter for us to exist at all....Together with physicists Hooman Davoudiasl at Brookhaven National Lab and David Morrissey of TRIUMF, Tulin and Sigurdson suggest a way to solve the problem of missing antimatter: Hide it away as dark matter. The details are published in the Nov. 19 Physical Review Letters.

An anonymous reader writes "Anonymous, the group leading the denial-of-service attacks on those who arrayed themselves against detained Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange has itself come under fire from US "patriots", said Panda Labs. Assange's detention in London on Swedish allegations of sexual molestation unleashed total cyberwar between factions opposed to and supporting his publication of confidential and classified diplomatic despatches. Almost every organisation that lined up against Assange, Wikileaks and its supporters has fallen under heavy, coordinated distributed denial-of-service attacks as have those who launched them. From web hosts to US senators, no one is safe from the botnet armies."Link to Original Source

jbrodkin (1054964) writes "Google is struggling to fix a calendar problem that has been causing appointments to show up on the wrong day, and says the problem will persist for several more days. Users began reporting the problem on Monday of this week, and a workaround offered by Google has not resolved the issue. The problem is affecting both consumers and business users, with Google support teams telling corporate customers that a fix will be ready by Monday, Dec. 6. While numerous users expressed frustration with Google, one person writes "we all took this chance when we made the decision to use software that is available to the general public in a hosted manner that you ultimately do not have control over.""Link to Original Source

An anonymous reader writes "A very interesting description of the algorithms behind the ghosts in Pac-Man. I had no idea about most of this information, but that's probably because it's difficult to study the ghosts when I die every 30 seconds."Link to Original Source

siliconbits (943161) writes "The KDL-22PX300 hit the headlines because it comes with a built in Playstation 2 built-in, one that doubles as a DVD reader. It also has two Ethernet ports, Bravia Internet, twin optical digital outputs, four HDMI ports, three USB sockets, SCART, PC input and more. But where does it come from and why would Sony build such an oddity?"Link to Original Source

astroengine writes "Two huge mysteries hang over cosmology: What is dark matter and why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? What if both have a common cause? According to research by physicists in the US and Canada, maybe antimatter — made up of "X" particles — accounts for a substantial fraction of the mysterious dark matter. Of course, we have no idea what this "X" particle is, but it could simplify the universe (while confusing the Standard Model) if it is discovered."Link to Original Source

Marc Desrochers (606563) writes "Apparently TSA agents are being told that one way to handle the new groping pat downs for children is to try to make it out to be some sort of "game." This is apparently horrifying some sex abuse experts who point out that a common tactic in abuse cases is to tell the kids that they're just "playing a game." The TSA has said that the newer patdowns will not apply to children under 12, but the rules have been somewhat unclear — leading to the statement from a TSA director, James Marchand:

"You try to make it as best you can for that child to come through. If you can come up with some kind of a game to play with a child, it makes it a lot easier."

He also said that the idea of making it a game would become a part of the TSA's training. Ken Wooden, who runs an organization to try to stop sex abuse of children was not pleased:

"How can experts working at the TSA be so incredibly misinformed and misguided to suggest that full body pat downs for children be portrayed as a game?" Wooden asked in an email. "To do so is completely contrary to what we in the sexual abuse prevention field have been trying to accomplish for the past thirty years.""Link to Original Source